The Dyer's Guide. Chapter IV. On Scouring and Dyeing Wool. To work a vat which is in proper order.

The Dyer's Guide
Being a Compendium of the Art of Dyeing
Linen, Cotton, Silk, Wool, Muslin, Dresses, Furniture, &c. &c.
With The Method of
Scouring Wool, Bleaching Cotton, &c.
And
Directions for Ungumming Silk, And For Whitening And Sulphuring Silk And Wool.
And Also
An Inttroductory Epitome of The Leading Facts in Chemistry, As Connected With The Art of Dyeing.

By Thomas Packer,
Dyer and Practical Chemist.

"Cet arte est un des plus utiles et des plus merveilleux qu'on connoisse."
- Chaptal.

"There is no art which depends so much on chemistry as dyeing."
- Garnett.

Second Edition,
Corrected and Materially Improved.

London:
Printed for Sherwood, Gilbert, And Piper,
Paternoster-Row.
1830.
The vat being in a proper state, the cross suspended, and thirty ells of cloth ready, or scoured wool in proportion, designed for black, by dyeing it of a blue grey; and having passed and repassed the cloth through the liquor for a full half-hour, it is to be wound round the winch, and thrown off into the barrow, and aired by the listings to change the green to blue. After this, a second piece may be dyed by the same process.

Having made this overture, or first stirring, as it is also called, the vat must be stirred afresh, adding lime; but not so much as to destroy the proper smell and feel. If the vat be in a good state, on the first day, it may be stirred three or four times; but it must not be overworked, particularly on the second day.

Concerning the colours to be obtained to the best possible advantage from afresh vat on the first day, - the first is for black, the next for royal blue, and the third a brown green. On the second day, violet, purple, and Turkey blues in the last stirring. On the third day, if the liquor be too much diminished, it must be filled up with hot water. At the end of the week, light blues may be done, and on Saturday night add rather more lime, to preserve the vat till Monday morning. On Monday morning add more indigo, and stir the paste; keep the vat liquor at a proper distance from the top. Cover it for two hours; then put in a pattern, and in an hour take it out; add lime according to the green shade of the pattern, and in an hour or two, if your vat has not suffered, you may begin working it afresh.

To keep the cloth, &c. from the sediment, there is always let down into the vat, before the work is begun, an iron circle, with cords fastened from the circumference to the centre.